Symposium - History

History of SAP

The Argentine Polymer Symposium (SAP) has been biennially held without interruption since 1993. These meetings have been organized by researchers from different national universities and institutes of CONICET, interested in the science and technology of polymers. In particular, Drs. Héctor E. Bertorello (Faculty of Chemistry, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), Gregorio R. Meira (INTEC, Universidad Nacional del Litoral and CONICET), Enrique M. Vallés (Plapiqui, Universidad Nacional del Sur and CONICET), and Robert J . Williams (INTEMA, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and CONICET), who were the directors of the leading research groups in polymers in Argentina to the early 90s, took the initiative of organizing these meetings.
In the first SAP, organized by Prof. Bertorello in Vaquerías (Córdoba), 63 works were presented mostly from Argentine authors. In the second SAP, the number of works almost doubled, and about half of the authors were of foreign origin. The following SAP, started joining an increasing number of submissions from other centers, institutes and universities. Since 2001, as a result of a significant participation of Chilean authors, SAP was realized in parallel with the Argentine Chilean Polymer Symposium (ARCHIPOL), maintaining this simultaneity until 2009.
While in Argentina there is still no formally constituted a Polymer Association, the biennial meetings of the SAP have allowed a significant rapprochement between scientific researchers, industry professionals, graduate and grade students from Argentina and Latin America, interested in synthetic and natural polymers.
In this time opportunity, the researchers involved in the organization are from Santa Fe and belong mostly to INTEC, receiving a major collaboration of local researchers and professors from around the country.
The following table lists the sites that have held the Argentine and Argentine-Chilean Polymers Symposia from its inception in 1993.